


Couchsurfing

by noora7



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:32:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7047913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noora7/pseuds/noora7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was written for May 2016's A Monthly Rumbelling non-smut prompt, which was "Be Our Guest".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Couchsurfing

Gold looked down at his hands. _Bugger._ They now seemed to be an orange-yellow kind of colour. Bloody turmeric. He should have never listened to Bae. “You need to make some decisions for your health, Papa! You should try juicing!” Now he was the proud owner of a slow juicer and orange-yellow hands, and he hadn’t even started juicing. This was just the prep. Who knew so much effort went into juicing? Maybe buying a 5kg box of apples was a bit ambitious to start with. Gold sighed and started soaping up his hands again, hoping that this time he might see some change in colour.

He heard a knock at the door and looked up at the clock in the kitchen. The postman had already been by, and none of Bae’s friends would drop by while he wasn’t home, so whoever was knocking on his door was either really desperate for his help or hadn’t thought this through. He grabbed a kitchen towel to dry his hands as he walked to the door. He pulled the door open, ready to snarl a greeting at the visitor, when he was stopped short by the bluest eyes he had ever seen.

“Hi!” The visitor was smiling at him. Nobody smiled at him. In fact, nobody except Bae really greeted him. She must be from out of town and she’s ended up at the wrong house. He looked down and noticed she had luggage with her. Yes, yes, definitely the wrong house.

“I’m pretty sure you have the wrong house, dearie, so you best run along to your car and double check the address of your friend because I can assure you that it is not here.” Gold stepped back and started to close the door, but she quickly put her hand out to stop him.

“No, no! I’m a friend of Bae’s! You _are_ Mr. Gold, right?” The blue eyed visitor seemed to be losing a little more of her good cheer with every passing moment. She also had a pretty strong Australian accent on her, so he seemed to have gotten the ‘out of town’ assumption quite right.

“Yes. You are?” He’d met all of Bae’s friends. At least the important ones who were welcome at the house, but that was only when Bae was there. He’d never met this young lady though, so he found it highly suspicious that she would turn up with luggage on a random Wednesday afternoon.

“Belle French? Bae stayed with me for a bit while he was on his gap year in Australia?”

Now he knew she was lying. Bae had only stayed at youth hostels on his gap year, refusing to allow his father to splurge on hotel rooms. He highly doubted she called a youth hostel home.

“Ah. So I’m meant to believe that a youth hostel is your permanent address?”

“Youth hostel? I don’t understand.” She actually looked confused. He had to give her some kudos for attempting to keep up the ruse even when he had clearly caught her on a lie.

“I have it on good authority that Bae only stayed at youth hostels, so unless you live in one, you’re wasting my time dearie. I suggest you head back to town and ask Granny if she has a spare room at her B&B.” He was just about done with this conversation. He hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, not even his bloody juice since it hadn’t been actually juiced yet, and he just didn’t have the energy to entertain this visitor, no matter how beautiful she was.

“Wait! Please, Mr. Gold, I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. Bae and I met through a website called Couchsurfing, and he stayed at my apartment in Sydney for two weeks. We kept in touch and when he heard I was planning a trip to America he told me he would be more than happy to return the favour. He also said he had run it by you, but you clearly have no clue who I am or why I’m here, so could you maybe just call Bae and speak to him before you slam the door in my face?”

There was that smile again. He was beginning to wonder if it was her smile or his hunger that was causing him to feel lightheaded. He looked at her face, then at her luggage, before giving her a quick nod and pulling out his cellphone.

“Hey Papa, what’s up?” As always, his son was the only person who ever sounded happy to get a phone call from him. To be fair he only ever called other people to threaten them with eviction, so they were probably right to be wary.

“Bae, is there anything you might have forgotten to speak to me about?”

“Erm… No?”

“Really? Does a young Australian lady talking about – what was that website again, Miss French? Ah, yes, thank you. Does Couchsurfing ring any bells?”

“SHIT! Wait, what day is it? Shit, shit, shit, I’m so sorry Papa, I’m on my way home right now and I’ll explain everything! Can you just let Belle in so she’s not just standing around outside the house, please?”

“You better have a good explanation by the time you’re back here.” Trust Bae to forget when a friend of his was flying around the world to visit him.

“I will! Please tell Belle I’m sorry!” The line cut off and Gold slipped the phone back into his pocket.

“Please come in, Miss French,” Gold stepped aside and Belle smiled at him. He really had to get some sugar in him. Clearly his blood sugar was low because his stomach was doing somersaults. Yes, blood sugar was definitely to blame for that.

He led Belle to the living room and gestured to the couch. “Bae shouldn’t be long. Would you like a cup of tea?”

“That would be lovely, Mr. Gold,” Belle replied with yet another dazzling smile on her face. He could do with a cup of tea as well, maybe that would stop all this silly things he was feeling. He nodded, and made his way to the kitchen.

He had placed the tea set on the tray and was attempting to wash his hands again while the kettle boiled, and didn’t notice that Belle had come into the kitchen. He sighed and turned around when the kettle was ready, and came face to face with a very curious Belle.

“Miss French?”

She was looking at his hands.

“Just a juicing mishap, dearie, I assure you that this isn’t something you can catch from being in close proximity to me.”

She looked at the turmeric on the counter and gave him a small smile, before pouring the milk from the tea set into the sugar bowl. Maybe he should have asked Bae a few more questions before letting her into his house because he wasn’t entirely sure what was happening right now.

Belle reached out for one of his hands and looked into his eyes. It really should be illegal to have eyes this blue.

“May I?”

He wasn’t even sure what she was asking permission to do, but he nodded anyway. She brought his hands over the kitchen sink and scooped some of the milk and sugar mixture onto them before gently scrubbing it into his skin. Her hands were soft, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the beautiful young lady treating him with so much tenderness.

“I love cooking Indian curries, and when I saw your hands I had a suspicion you had been dealing with turmeric but I didn’t smell anything cooking so I wasn’t very sure to be honest, until I followed you in here and noticed you weren’t having much success with the soap…” Belle went on, telling him about how she discovered the cure for the stain, her favourite curries to cook, the health benefits of turmeric, but Gold could hardly concentrate on anything she was saying. He was pretty sure he had never seen anyone or anything more beautiful in his life, and he was mentally kicking himself for thinking this about someone who was not only the same age as his son, but someone who was so out of his league that she was clearly playing in the Premiership while he was stuck in non-league football.

“Papa?” Bae had walked into the kitchen because he had heard Belle’s voice, but hadn’t expected to be greeted by the sight of her scrubbing his Papa’s hands while he stared at her with a glazed look on his face and slightly parted lips.

“BAE!” Belle practically leaped onto Bae, who braced himself just in time and managed to avoid being tackled to the ground by the petite Australian.

“What _are_ you doing?” Bae looked up to see his Papa just staring at his hands over the sink. Well, he clearly wasn’t going to get any answers from him.

“Oh just helping your dad with some silly turmeric stains. How are you?!” Bae led Belle back towards the living room to continue catching up. He figured he’d give his Papa some time to put some coherent thoughts back into his head before he spoke to him about Belle staying over, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t take much to convince him after all.

Gold heard their voices fade as they left the kitchen and finally looked up from his hands. He sighed, thinking about the likelihood that Belle would be staying in this house for the next few weeks. He wasn’t opposed to it, he just wasn’t entirely sure why he was reacting to her the way that he was. Yes, she was gorgeous, but he’d had many tenants try to get extensions by flirting and he had never ever felt inclined to respond to them with anything but scorn. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time that he had this kind of reaction to anyone.

It wasn’t like he was oblivious to the women in this town – it was just that none of them seemed to interest him. He also didn’t think that he was capable of being in a relationship after what happened with Milah. She had managed to drill it into his head that he was quite a useless partner, and he wasn’t keen to relive hearing those words from another woman. Especially not one as lovely as Miss French. His body and his mind were just being silly, and anyway, she was Bae’s age, which automatically made her off limits. She probably flew all the way down here because she had a crush on his son, and here he was contemplating his chances with her. At least the scrubbing worked – the stains were practically gone from his hands.

He walked into the living room to the sound of laughter and he saw Bae look up and give him a very pointed look. “Papa, Belle was just asking me if I could bring her back into town to get a room at Granny’s.”

“Granny’s?” Gold wasn’t entirely sure why Bae was looking at him like that.

“I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position, Mr. Gold. It’s one thing for me to stay here for two weeks if Bae had given you ample warning, but I can’t just expect you to take me in when you’d never even heard of me before 20 minutes ago.” Belle spoke with such sincerity he honestly wondered if she was real. How could anyone be this… good? 

“Don’t be silly, dearie. There is no reason for you to have to change your plans when Bae was the one who made a mistake. I would be honoured to welcome you into my home. Bae, run along upstairs and make up the spare room for our guest, please.”

Bae was already halfway up the stairs before either of them even realized he had left the room, and Gold gave her a small smile. Her face lit up, and before he knew what hit him, she had launched herself onto him.

“Thank you, Mr. Gold! I cannot tell you how much this means to me!” She was hugging him. Arms around his neck, body flush against his. Proper human contact from a beautiful woman. Gold wasn’t entirely sure what to do with his hands – it’s not like he was up to date with hugging decorum – so he decided to go with patting her awkwardly on her shoulder.

“It’s no matter, Miss French.” He took a step back, and was a little sad when she pulled away. It was nice to be hugged. He looked up to see Bae smiling at the two of them. How long had he been standing there? Why did Bae seem so happy to have found Belle hugging him anyway?

“C’mon Belle, I’ll show you to your room.” Bae grabbed her luggage and they went upstairs. Gold made a decision to make himself scarce over the next two weeks – there was no point torturing himself by being around Belle anymore than he had too. He didn’t want to intrude on any time that she wanted to spend with Bae, and he also didn’t want Belle to feel like she had to interact with him on account of her staying in his home for free. Yes, he’d make himself scarce, and the two weeks would be over before he knew it.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. He tried his best to avoid Belle, but Bae was always including him in their plans, and Belle seemed to have a knack for finding him even when he tried his best to hide away. They actually had more than pleasant conversations – they had a lot more in common than Gold would have assumed considering their age difference (which was smaller than he first presumed, he found out that Belle was a whole five years older than Bae) – and after a week he decided to give up on the hiding and just embrace the fact that Belle seemed to actually want him around. He wasn’t giving himself any ideas about her wanting him the same way he wanted her, but it was nice to have someone other than Bae to speak to.

It was Belle’s last full day in Storybrooke, and Gold had cleared his schedule in hopes of spending time with her before she headed back to Australia. He had heard Bae and her muttering over breakfast before saying they would be heading out for a bit, so he was currently sitting on the couch and staring at the TV which wasn’t even switched on. He heard the front door open and he quickly grabbed a magazine off the coffee table to look busy. Belle popped her head into the room and smiled when she noticed what he had in his hands.

“Enjoying that?”

“What?” She pointed at the ‘Cosmopolitan’ he was holding and realized he must have grabbed one of her magazines. _Bugger_. Deciding to change the subject, he asked her where Bae was.

“Oh, he had some things to do in uni. He’ll be back later.” He nodded, and put the magazine down. So they were alone for the next few hours. Lovely. She would probably be busy packing so maybe he should just leave her to it. What was he thinking clearing his schedule today? Presumptuous fool. He got up to head towards his office but found his exit blocked by Belle. 

“Miss French?”

“Iwaswonderingifwecouldmakedinnertogether,” Belle mumbled, looking anywhere but at him.

“I’m sorry?”

She sighed and looked into his eyes. “I thought it would be nice – since this is my last day here and all – if maybe I taught you how to make some of those Indian curries I told you about the day I arrived? We obviously don’t have to if you don’t want to but I just thought it would be nice, you know, since I helped you with the turmeric problem and I was trying to find a way to thank you for letting me stay here…” She was rambling. He’d noticed that she would do that when she was nervous and he found it adorable. He reached for her shoulder to stop her.

“I’d love to. Shall we?” She made a happy squeaking noise, before nodding and heading towards the kitchen. He soon realized where she had been all morning when he saw all the groceries she had bought. He wasn’t entirely sure just how much they’d be cooking because they was enough there to feed an army. He raised an eyebrow at her and she gave him a sheepish smile.

“I wasn’t sure what you’d like so I bought enough groceries for my three favourite dishes so you could try them all.” She shrugged and started pulling things out of the bags. He was suddenly overcome with a need to kiss her. Nobody had ever been so sweet to him. He reminded himself that she was just trying to repay his kindness for letting her stay with them, and that any advances from him would probably be very unwelcome. He clenched his fists, and started helping her unpack the groceries.

After everything was laid out on the kitchen island, Belle decided they’d start with a chicken curry. She held out some fresh turmeric root. “Would you like to do the honours?”

Just as he was about to politely decline, she spoke up again. “Don’t worry, Mr. Gold, I’ll get those stains out of your hands again.” She was blushing. Why was she blushing? Gold was confused, but there was no way that he could refuse her after that. He nodded and got to peeling the turmeric.

If Gold was at all worried about things being awkward while cooking, he needn’t have been. They were completely at ease with each other, Gold sharing more about himself than he had in years. They were actually a pretty good team, and in no time at all, the curry was simmering on the stove.

“So I love spicy food, but I’m not sure about your preferences. I made this quite mild, but I can add some chilies to it if you want me to.” She had scooped up some curry onto a spoon and sipped at it, nodding to herself before turning around to offer him a taste. He was standing right behind her, peering over her shoulder into the pot, and it was the closest they had been to each other. He looked into her eyes as he tasted the curry.

“Perfect.” He knew he meant more than just the curry, but they were so close, and her eyes were so blue, and he knew if he didn’t take a step back soon he would do something he might regret, but he just couldn’t.

“Oh… You have a little…” Belle reached out with her hand to wipe the little bit of curry on the side of his mouth before she stopped herself. Gold took that as the sign he needed that she would rather not touch him, and was about to turn away when Belle leaned forward and gave him the softest kiss. He was too stunned to react and before he knew it she was pulling back. She turned back to the curry and started stirring it a little more vigorously than she had been.

“Belle?” The stirring got worse. “Belle…” He reached for her hand to stop her before the pot tipped over. He could see that she had her eyes clenched shut. “What’s wrong?” Did she feel like she _had_ to kiss him? Was this her regretting her decision?

“I’m sorry! It’s just – you’re so sweet, and I love talking to you and you were standing right there just looking at me with your brown eyes and you’re just so damn beautiful and I know I shouldn’t have kissed you and there’s no way it was welcome and to be honest I’m not actually too sorry because I’m leaving tomorrow and I just had to do something before I never see you again!”

Her rant had left her breathless, and her eyes were bright and all Gold could think of was that he had to kiss her again. He turned her to face him, cradling her face in his hands and leant down to taste her once more. Belle deepened the kiss, and Gold was more than happy to let her set the pace. He grudgingly pulled back before things got too heated and rested his forehead against hers.

“Stay.” Gold whispered the word so softly he wasn’t even sure he actually said it out loud. He was too afraid to open his eyes.

“What?” Belle wasn’t sure if he had said what she thought she had heard. Maybe it was wishful thinking on her part. There were too many words that sounded too much like ‘stay’ for her to just assume he was asking her that.

“Stay?” Gold finally opened his eyes. “Not forever… Not that I don’t want you to stay forever – I mean it’s entirely up to you of course – I would just really like to spend a bit more time with you. Like this.”

Belle smirked at Gold. “I see. More times like this.” She saw the expression on his face change and she could barely stop herself from giggling.

“No! Not like this! Not that I would be opposed to it! But it doesn’t have to be like this all the time!” Now it was his turn to ramble on, and Belle gave him a quick peck on his lips to calm him down.

“I know what you meant. I’m just teasing.” She felt Gold sigh in relief.

“Just… Don’t go? Not yet. Please?” His amber eyes seemed to have little flecks of gold in them reflecting the light, and she was utterly mesmerized. There was no way that she would be saying no to him. She nodded, and he pulled her closer into his embrace. She had never felt more at home than she did at that moment.

Bae came home a couple of hours later, to some lovely smells emanating from the kitchen. So Belle had managed to convince Papa to cook with her – but just how successful was she with the second part of the plan? He walked into the kitchen to see Belle giggling at something his Papa had just said. Things looked promising so far.

“Hey guys – isn’t this a bit too much food considering that Belle’s leaving in the morning?”

“Oh I changed my flight! I’m probably staying another week. I mean, I actually left it open so I could stay longer if I wanted to… But you know, I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome…”

Before Bae could even attempt to say something, Gold cut in. “Don’t be absurd, Belle. That would never happen.”

“Weren’t you the one who tried to send her away, Papa? Whatever happened to change your mind?” Bae knew he was torturing his father, but he just couldn’t help himself. Gold was absolutely crimson at this point.

“What? Nothing happened. I just – I love the taste of her curry. Yes. I’d like to sample more of her curry.”

Bae had to bite his tongue to stop himself from muttering ‘that’s what she said’. “Suuuuure,” he drawled sarcastically before turning around and leaving the two lovebirds alone. He looked back just as he was about to turn the corner, and saw his Papa groan and rest his head on Belle’s shoulder. She was stroking his hair, probably comforting him after all of the teasing.

Bae smiled to himself, running upstairs to make plans for the next week that didn’t include Belle or his Papa. He most definitely did **not** want to walk in on his Papa ‘sampling Belle’s curry’. There was not enough milk and sugar scrub in the galaxy that would get rid of that stain on his brain. He suspected that return ticket was going to end up never being used, and he was honestly quite glad. After all, it was about time his father got his happily ever after, and he could not think of anyone more perfect for his Papa than Belle.


End file.
